SEA00LA110 · Hoye KOLB TWINSTAR MK III KOLB TWINS
Hoye KOLB TWINSTAR MK III KOLB TWINS · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Whitefish Airport (58S) to Ferndale Airfield (53U)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA00LA110
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Hoye KOLB TWINSTAR MK III KOLB TWINS
- Aircraft type
- Hoye KOLB TWINSTAR MK
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N618HP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Whitefish Airport (58S), Whitefish, MTTo Ferndale Airfield (53U), FERNDALE, MT
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Maneuvering
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of control in flight
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Witnesses reported observing the aircraft perform various low level flight maneuvers in the area. A witness reported that the aircraft was performing steep turns, and steep climbs and descents prior to the final maneuver. The witness reported that the aircraft began a steep climb from about 300-400 feet above ground level for a few seconds, then nosed down and collided with the terrain in a near vertical attitude. Post-accident inspection of the wreckage did not reveal evidence of a mechanical failure or malfunction.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control. Inadequate altitude for recovery was a factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA00LA110
- Event ID
- 20001212X21339
- Case number
- SEA00LA110
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2000-06-21.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a2be1609c1680e2fbf20b09762acd6dd260e347947104ee19017425114d4fd02; retrieved 2026-09-20T21:08:35.751Z.